The 12 most insane tennis scandals in history
Ah, tennis season, a time for strawberries and cream and the gentle "thonk! Thonk!" from impossibly neon balls hitting plastic racquet heads. Well, yes – but also a time to remember SCANDALS from times past, and times really quite recent.
For such a polite game (well, squeals and screams and John McEnroe notwithstanding), tennis has seen quite the controversy over the years. We've rounded up some of the most gasp-inducing bad behaviour in the game – as well as some that caused raised eyebrows at the time, but looks positively normal from the viewpoint of 2017.
Let's get this tournament of travails started!
Picture Editor: Sandra Waibl
Getty ImagesGussie Moran
It's not a Wimbledon match unless you see at least five pairs of white pants beaming out from underneath a tennis skirt, and the woman we have to credit for starting that trend is the spectacularly-named American player, Gertrude "Gussie" Moran.
Moran reached number 4 in the American national tennis league, and as a result of her success, was invited to take part in Wimbledon in 1949. She asked the longstanding Wimbledon host Ted Tinlin (another great name) to design her outfit, and he came up with a short outfit matched with frilly pants. The press had a field day with Moran, nicknaming her "Gorgeous Gussie" and she went on to significant success in her own right from her notoriety – and well as coming runner-up in the Women's Doubles match that year.
The crotchety old bores at Wimbledon accused her of bringing "vulgarity and sin into tennis", and Tinlin was iced out from his role for 23 years. But really – knickers to that.
Getty ImagesJohn McEnroe
I mean, pretty much anything McEnroe did during his tenure as tennis's loudest, angriest, rudest player (and thus immediate super star) fits in here. As well as notching up a pretty amazing 77 singles and 78 doubles titles during his career, McEnroe became synonymous with challenging umpire decisions – he named his autobiography You Cannot Be Serious after his catchphrase. Chilled out, this guy was not. In 1984, he was suspended for 21 days for exceeding a $7,500 limit on fines. Incidentally, this limit was created... because of McEnroe. Awks!
Getty ImagesBoris Becker
IT'S THE SEX IN THE CUPBOARD GUY! Before Boris Becker became infamous for getting a Russian model pregnant after a one-off encounter in a cupboard at a London restaurant (stylish), he was a phenomenal tennis player. He became the world's youngest Wimbledon winner when he won the competition aged 17, and went on to become the world number one player. But yes. Sex in the cupboard guy.
Getty ImagesMonica Seles
Going into 1993, Seles was the world's top female player, and beat Stefi Graf to take the Australian Open title that January. In April, an obsessed fan of Graf's ran out during a match she was playing – not against Graf – and stabbed Seles between the shoulder blades. The fan was sentenced to two years' probation and psychological treatment.
Seles was physically healed after a couple of months, but did not return to tennis for two years. She vowed to never again play in Germany saying, "What people seem to be forgetting is that this man stabbed me intentionally and he did not serve any sort of punishment for it. I would not feel comfortable going back. I don't foresee that happening."
Getty ImagesAndre Agassi
A major pin-up in 90s tennis, Agassi had a high-profile marriage to Brooke Shields, and a wildly successful career. But in his autobiography, Open, he revealed that he lied about failing a drug test in order to escape a three-month ban. He had used some crystal meth belonging to his assistant, Slim.
He wrote: "I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely. I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it."
Tennis had a reputation for being soft on drug use and doping, which has reportedly been tightened up in the 20 years since Agassi escaped his ban, thanks in part to the introduction of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999, which various world tennis organisations eventually joined in the early 2000s. Were Agassi to be found doping now, he would face a two-year ban, as happened to Martina Hingis.
Getty ImagesGabriella Taylor
The 18-year-old girls player pulled out of her Wimbledon quarter-final in 2016 after feeling unwell, and spent four days in intensive care where she was diagnosed with leptospirosis, more commonly known as Weil's disease.
Her mother told the Telegraph that it was impossible that her daughter could have contracted the illness by accident due to it being so rare in the UK, saying: “Her bags with her drinks in were often left unattended in the players’ lounge and someone could have taken the opportunity to contaminate her drink.”
However, experts in the illness concluded that it was highly unlikely to have been the case, with one saying it was "a bit laughable" to think that it could have been used to deliberately poison someone.
Getty ImagesDaniel Koellerer
In 2011, the Austrian tennis player received a lifetime ban for match fixing – the first player to get such a ban. He was also fined $100,000 for betting-related corruption. Koellerer, whose best position in the world rankings was 55, earned more than $750,000 during his 11-year career.
Getty ImagesGabriela Sabatini
Sabatini was only 14 when she joined the professional women's tennis circuit – she retired 12 years later, aged 26, having won £6 million in prize money, won 27 singles titles, and held the world number 3 spot. Now in her mid-40s, she has a range of perfumes named after her, and it was while promoting these that she admitted to having endured such crippling shyness in her youth that she purposefully sabotaged some of her matches in order to avoid being interviewed. In 2013, she told the Argentine newspaper La Nacion:"When I was younger and thought that I had to talk after winning a tournament, I often lost in the semifinals so I did not have to. It was that bad!"
Getty ImagesMartina Hingis
A former child prodigy, Hingis became the youngest female world number 1 tennis player at the age of 16. She was 27 and a five-time Grand Slam winner when she announced her retirement from tennis, shortly after having been found to have traces of cocaine in her system after Wimbledon 2007.
"When I was informed I had failed my 'A' test following my defeat at Wimbledon I was shocked and appalled," she said at the time. "I'm frustrated and angry because I believe I'm 100 per cent innocent and accusations such as these don't provide me with the motivation to continue. My only performance enhancer is the love of the game."
In 2013, her estranged husband Thibault Hutin accused her of being a serial adulterer, telling a Swiss newspaper that he had found her in bed with another man a year after their wedding in 2010.
Getty ImagesRory McIlroy
Hang on, Rory McIlroy's a golfer, right? Yes, yes he is: but his ex-fiancée Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish tennis player and former number 1 on the WTA Tour. The couple got engaged on New Year's Eve 2013 after two years together, but McIlroy jilted her shortly before they were due to marry. "The problem is mine," McIlroy said. "The wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realise that I wasn't ready for all that marriage entails. I wish Caroline all the happiness she deserves and thank her for the great times we've had."
Getty ImagesSerena Williams
Hang on, Serena Williams did something wrong? Well, yes and no, but she's had several major outbursts over the years – she received a fine and two-year suspension after one in 2009 – and one in 2011 saw her landed with a $2000 fine.
During the US Open final, Williams had been given a code violation for shouting "Come on!" during her opponent's serve, which could have been seen as attempting to put her off. When the lineswoman announced her penalty, Williams saw that she had been involved in the 2009 incident. "If you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way because you're out of control," Williams said in a lengthy tirade. "'You're a hater and you're just unattractive inside."
Ouch.
Getty ImagesMaria Sharapova
Oh Maria, how could you! The five-time Grand Slam champion raked in many a lucrative sponsorship thanks to her beauty and skill, but lost it all in 2016 when she received a two-year ban for using the banned substance meldonium, a heart disease medication which increases stamina and endurance.
The ban was later reduced to 15 months after Sharapova appealed, and she returns to tennis this year. However, she will miss the grass court season due to injury.
